SEVEN of Wales' best athletes may be missing - but the quality of competition should still be high on day two of the national championships in Cwmbran today.

SEVEN of Wales' best athletes may be missing - but the quality of competition should still be high on day two of the national championships in Cwmbran today.

With Jamie Baulch, Christian Malcolm, Iwan Thomas, Matt Elias, Catherine Murphy, Philippa Roles and Hayley Tullett in Florence for Great Britain's European Cup bid, a number of Wales' brightest hopefuls will want to grab the chance of a national title for an early-season confidence boost.

And in some events, like today's men's 1500m, the quality has not been hit with Wales' top two athletes, James Thie and Matt Shone going head-to-head. The heats were due off at 10.30am.

Other finals due today are the 300m hurdles for the Under 17 girls and 400m hurdles for Under 20 and senior women, followed by the same events for the men.

Spectators are likely to see the dawn of a new era this afternoon as the 110m hurdles final takes place without the incomparable Colin Jackson and one of Welsh athletics' stalwart competitors, Paul Gray, who has still not recovered from a foot injury.

There is a huge void left by Jackson's retirement, and the event is wide open.

Later this afternoon, all the sprint finals will be decided, as well as men's and women's 3,000m finals.

In the field events, which begin at 10am with the discus, all events are finals with the men's pole vault likely to produce the strongest rivalry.

Spectators should be in for a treat as Wales's number one, Tim Thomas, faces a young man who has recently become a Welsh competitor on residency grounds, Scott Simpson. Both men regularly clear five metres plus and Thomas will want to maintain his winning streak in the event, while Simpson will be hoping to put one over on his former training partner.

Yesterday Newport's James Nasrat stormed to his first senior Welsh championships title when he won the 800m final.

Although many expected the race to be another famous clash between Wales' number one and two, James Thie and Matt Shone, 20-year-old Nasrat showed his European hopes are very real, leaving the pair trailing.

The absence of a number of illustrious names meant some of the line-ups were a little light, but there was no denying the joy and pleasure on Barry's Dominic Papura's face as he held off a strong challenge from Jamie Henthorn to win his first senior outdoor title, the 200m.

"This was only my second race of the season and it has given me a great deal of confidence to take it on to the student games," he said.

Britain's number two woman hurdler, Cardiff's Rachel King, was never under threat in the 100m hurdles. She recorded her fastest time - 13.07seconds - at Loughborough two weeks ago, and although yesterday's time was fairly pedestrian by those standards, she was happy with the way her season is progressing.

"A place in the world championships in Paris is my main aim," she said, "but having a time in the 13.0s, I now want to dip under 13seconds."